Sony Pictures Classics has taken North American rights to Roger Spottiswoode's The Children Of Huang Shi.

The epic tale is set in war-ravaged China in 1938. Production on the project ends today in Shanghai, with a cast including Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Radha Mitchell, Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh.

Arthur Cohn and Wieland Schulz-Keil are producing. The film is a Chinese-Australian-German co-production with Peter Loehr of Beijing's Ming Productions, Jonathan Shteinman of Sydney's Bluewater Pictures and Martin Hagemann of Berlin's Zero Fiction also serving as producers. Chinese distribution and production house Qixinran is co-producing with Ashock Amritraj of Hyde Park International handling foreign sales.

As ScreenDaily.com previously reported, Hyde Park closed a number of other deals on the film during the Berlinale. Other distibutors include Metropolitan (France); MGM (CIS); Paris Films (Brazil); Gussi (all remaining Latin American rights); Village Roadshow (Greece); RCV (Benelux); Lusomundo (Portugal); Eastern Europe (Modus Vivendi); Aqua Pinema (Turkey); and Phars (Middle East).

The film is about a young British journalist who recues 60 orphaned children and then leads them on a journey along the Silk Road. James MacManus and Jane Hawksley wrote the script.

Sony Pictures Classics said in a statement: 'We are happy to be in business again with Arthur Cohn and to be joining producer Wieland Schulz-Keil on this amazing international project. The casting of Radha Mitchell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers is ideal, with Roger Spottiswoode directing a wonderful script.'

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